Childhood Obesity

Childhood Obesity

Yulonda L. Birge

Ashford University

ENG122: English Composition II

November 06, 2011

Shelley Lawyer

Childhood Obesity

There is an epidemic of overweight and obese children in the world today. Overweight children have an excess of body weight for their particular height, and the additional weight can be caused by fat, bone, water, or a combination of any of these elements. Obesity, however, is defined as having an extreme amount of excess body weight. This paper will review the causes of obesity, the immediate and long term health effects of being obese, and what should be done to prevent this from continuing on. Certain genetic factors paired with changing lifestyles and culture has produced children and adults who generally not as healthy as people were a few decades ago. Widespread obesity has been the extreme result of these changes. I chose this topic because I am a survivor of childhood obesity. And I want other children to not to have to suffer through the names, the avoidance, and the pain of it, plus, I do not want to see children die from being overweight.

Statistics

Approximately 17% or 12.5 million of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). In the past 30 years, childhood obesity has more than tripled. In the United States alone, children between the ages of 6 – 11 years of age who were said to be obese increased from 7 per cent in 1980 to almost 20 percent in 2008 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). At the same time in 2008, more than one third of all children and adolescents between the ages of 12 – 19 increased from five percent to 18 percent (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011).

Immediate Health Effects

Obesity can lead to immediate health problems and can also cause future health

problems. Some of the immediate health effects can be high blood pressure, respiratory

problems, meaning a person cannot breathe well. Depression...